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For 150 years hydrogen fuel cells have existed, but scientist have not really been able to make fuel cells come down in size enough to become a practical, everyday life application.  The major application which would be perfect for fuel cells would be to put them into cars for all of us.  But, there is a huge problem with this, mainly that whatever energy a fuel cell gives the car, it needs to get back from somewhere in order to be recharged.

That means that in order to work, a fuel cell needs to be recharged by something like an anti-fuel cell.  A fuel cell works by bringing hydrogen and oxygen together to form water.  Now, oxygen is plentiful in our air, but finding and holding the hydrogen is another matter.  Until recently Hydrogen had to be held in tanks similar to those you see at fairs to blow up balloons, or oxygen tanks divers use to go under water.  But now, the Israelis have figured out a new technique to hold the hydrogen which will take up much less space, and be much lighter in weight.

However, I still believe that there is a huge problem to implement this great new technology into cars, namely figuring out a way to recharge these fuel cells.  Many places in Europe have these Hydrogen fueling stations which recharge the hydrogen fuel cells in cars, but it takes roughly the same amount of energy to refuel as was expended, making it still a very expensive and questionable endeavor here in the United States.

In the United States it is far more cost effective to use electric-gas hybrids.  However, these hybrids are not going to completely get rid of all the pollution we are putting out today, so I have no doubt that eventually we will have to transition to hydrogen fuel cells, or all electric as soon as they can perfect these technologies.